On Dec 27, 2010, at 10:03 PM, Boris Liberman wrote: > Here is a thought to consider for you, Larry. > > It is unlikely that K-5 will be /significantly/ better at higher ISO than > K-x. Say, a stop, may be stop and a half. Of course you cannot dial ISO > 25,600 on K-x, but if ISO 25,600 of K-5 is /similar/ to ISO 3200 on K-7, you > might not want to use it at all.
I have found when shooting blues dancing, that the 2/3 stop from f/1.8 to 1.4 to make a big difference, because it means the difference between 1/10 second and 1/15 second shutter speeds, which is just about at the threshold of where most of the shots are keepers or not. I suspect that there are also conditions where I could use the increased dynamic range, rather than higher ISO to get shots that I'd otherwise have missed. One other case where neither of my cameras are quite up to the task, that the K-5 might be, is Dave Savage style night photography. In my opinion Ralf's photos tend to be of subjects that are a lot more tolerant of noise than are starry skies. I'd love to have someone with a K-5 go out on a starry night with a standard or wide lens and take some 30 second exposures showing both landscape and sky at various ISOs. > > K-5 is said to be improving significantly over K-7 and consequently over > K20D. Since you have two cameras, you have your needs covered either by K20D > or by K-x depending on lighting conditions. > > In my opinion, if you were to replace both cameras with just one K-5, your > pictures won't be /better/. But it will be /easier/ for you to get those good > pictures that you're getting now with your present cameras. You won't have to > deal with ergonomic differences (buttons, modes, etc) between your present > two cameras. You will have somewhat better AF and somewhat better metering > and 100% viewfinder. How much any of these improvements are going to make > your life easier is difficult to see - you would have to be the judge. But > the fact that your K-5 will meter more precisely than, say, K-x won't change > the composition or lighting setup or even timing of the shot taken (knowing > that you shoot (*) a lot of dancing people). So like I said, K-5 is unlikely > to give you /significantly/ better pictures, but it is likely to make your > life /easier/. Your analysis is pretty close to spot on. It would allow me to carry only one body in my camera bag, which would make life a lot easier since I *always* carry my camera bag with me. It also makes it easier because it seems that I inevitably have the lens I need on the wrong body, so I need to change lenses twice, rather than once. The improved metering and focus, in addition to the better dynamic range and a mode dial that doesn't change of its own volition, should also mean that I miss a lot fewer shots because it takes less time to set up the first shot. > > Whether or not this warrants "extreme fiscal irresponsibility" - who am I to > tell you?! It's not an answer I expect any one person to be able to give me. > > I do suggest that you give Topaz Denoise and high ISO images of your cameras > a try. They have fully operational 30 day trial - you may be surprised like I > was. Surely, my K-7 and Topaz Denoise do not constitute fair replacement of > K-5 high ISO abilities, but it is the best I can get with my money right here > right now. I suspect that the jazz singer is slightly but not a lot better than using the noise reduction in lightroom. I also suspect that the two stage processing would also be a lot more effort, i.e. worthwhile on a print that was going into a show, but maybe not worthwhile on my daily snapshots. > > Boris > > (*) To prevent puns, I should immediately say that all people whom Larry shot > so far were unscathed /grin/. So far as you know. Then again you've only had a couple of opportunities to experience the emotional scarring from seeing one of my portraits of you. > -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
